Sydney Roosters too good for St Helens in World Club Series

THE Roosters’ Mitchell Pearce dilemma appears to have been solved after 19-year-old playmaker Jayden Nikorima ripped St Helens apart in the World Club Series opener.

THE Roosters’ Mitchell Pearce dilemma appears to have been solved after 19-year-old playmaker Jayden Nikorima ripped St Helens apart.

Nikorima was knocked out in just the fourth minute but woke up and returned to set up three tries in 21 minutes during the Roosters’ World Club Series domination.

Nikorima was near untouchable at times as he combined with Aidan Guerra on the Roosters’ right edge to silence a hostile Langtree Park crowd.

They were so dominant the St Helens’ crowd booed their team.

The Roosters eventually won 38-12 scoring seven tries to make it four wins from four games for Australian teams in World Club Series history.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson confirmed Nikorima and fellow teenager Latrell Mitchell would play round one.

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“He had a good performance (Jayden). Some really good support play and a nice carry for the try with Shaun Kenny-Dowall,” Robinson said.

“He also had some really good defence too and held his own on that side.

“We only have one other half in Tyler Cornish and he’s a halfback.

“We are going to go with those guys. He did really well tonight.

“The first half was a very good performance.”

Robinson was not in the mood to discuss Pearce’s looming punishment, shutting questions about his rehabilitation down.

“No,” Robinson said when asked for an update.

The Roosters were missing Pearce, James Maloney, Boyd Cordner, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Michael Jennings and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck from last year’s best 13.

Captain Jake Friend said on match eve his team wasn’t looking for sympathy because they believed they would be successful from round one.

It seemed like positive-thinking trying to cover frailty but this Roosters team is very confident.

Some of their tries were sublime.

Still, St Helens were poor.

There are few NRL teams they could beat based on last night’s performance.

They finished fourth in the Super League last year and have been average this season, trounced by cellar-dwellers Salford as Robert Lui carved them up.

Nikorima has put on significant weight since leaving the Brisbane Broncos for Bondi.

He showed no fear in the fourth minute when he chased a kick and tried to smash a St Helens back only to collect a stray knee and see stars.

He passed a concussion test and returned in the 19th minute, setting up Guerra, Dale Copley and Blake Ferguson for four pointers in the first half.

He then burned two St Helens defenders for pace and put Shaun Kenny-Dowall over.

Jackson Hastings played the organising role at halfback while Nikorima had a license to attack.

Jackson Hastings impressed against St Helens.

“I was excited before the game to see how they went and they both went very well,” captain Jake Friend said.

“Jayden had some awesome touches. He has that unknown factor that he can come up with anything.”

It was 22-0 at half time and the game was effectively over.

St Helens finally troubled the scorers just after half time when Ferguson couldn’t catch a bomb that threatened to hit the cross bar and for Gold Coast centre Dom Peyroux planted the ball down to score in front of 14,008 fans.

The only concern for the Roosters is a potential judiciary appearance for firebrand forward Dylan Napa who collected St Helens winger Adam Swift high and was sin-binned.

Originally published as Sydney Roosters too good for St Helens in World Club Series